I was raised in Greenfield, Massachusetts, which is about 100 miles west of Boston and have one brother, Dave, and my parents, Fred and Judy and most of our extended family are from New England, New York, and Delaware. It was a great upbringing and believe that is what helped me to look for purpose and answers for my life as I got older. We weren’t very religious as a family, but there was one experience not long after I graduated high school that got me to believe for the first time that God was real and there was no denying it. This specific experience was one that was a turning point in my life and helped me to realize that God will speak to us in a way that is tangible and undeniable and that we can easily understand. These are words I’ll personally never forget and don’t want to ever forget and absolutely got my attention. “God is real, the devil is real, heaven is real, hell is real, the Bible is true, and there is such a thing as sin.”
I enlisted in the US Navy in 1987 for a two-year contract for the purpose of getting money for the GI Bill and hoping to build a foundation for my life. It was during my time in the service that I began to seek more diligently for purpose in my life and thankfully met Christian Fellowship church in the summer of 1988 and was born-again in Jesus’ name. After my enlistment ended, I was asked by our founding pastor, LR Davis, about moving to Illinois to be a part of Christian Fellowship there and I moved in July 1989. I began volunteering time with the military base ministry, the church art department, the church front office, and several years later assisting in the church accounting department. There was also a point in time that I was asked to teach Bible studies and eventually preach messages. On the professional side of my life, I worked for a company in Wheeling, Illinois – Fluid Management from 1989-1998 and held several positions there which helped pave the way to getting a job working for Grainger in 1998 where I’m still employed to this day.
